A friend and I welcomed 2009 in downtown Denver, first attending the Bovine Metropolis Theater, an improv group similar in concept to Groundlings in LA. Very funny group of people. I will pass on an unusual pairing of words that propelled one of the improvs: Quantum Zombie. Make of that what you will, all creative types.

Afterward, we watched, oohed and aahed as the fireworks were set off directly overhead on the 16th street mall. A good time was had by all.

I'm feeling old this morning. Only a slight hangover. From drinking too much wine. Red and sparkling. Dinner last night consisted of bleu cheese biscuits, baked sour cream and onion melba rounds, and hummus on taandori bread.

Name: Slaymaker Source: unca20090104.htmLast night my hubby Sputnik (it's a nickname) and I went to Trattoria la Festa in Stowe for dinner and had one of the best meals we've ever had. On a prix-fixe menu we had a fabulous antipasti, and a good Caesar's. Sputnik had a Black Angus sirloin stuffed with mozzerella and salami and dressed with a mushroom sauce. I had filet mignon of pork stuffed with spinach and gorgonzola and dressed with an herbal cream sauce that was excellent. Dessert was a dolce yule log. Alec Baldwin waited on us (actually he's a friend named James, but he looks so much like Alec that he gets stopped constantly). The ambience was perfect, the wine delicious, and we were home when the ball dropped. It was great.

If ever you come to Stowe you must do two things: stop in at Stowe Video and say hi (and rent a movie!), and eat at Trattoria. It's worth it.

Name: Ben Winfield Source: unca20090104.htmThis might be jumping ahead a little bit, but I can't wait until 2010 arrives. My mouth is so tired of saying "two-thousand-one, two-thousand-four, two-thousand-seven". Twenty-ten, twenty-fourteen, and twenty-seventeen just roll off the tongue much more easily.

I'll probably get in trouble for saying this here but for years I've said that my two favorite writers were Westlake and Lawrence Block. Both men did everything a genre writer is supposed to do and they did them brilliantly, but they also did all of the things that genre writers are supposed to be incapable of.

Westlake in particular had extraordinary range and impact, from his comic novels to his tough Stark books to screenplays like the Stepfather and the Grifters. He even made occasionally forays into fantasy and science fiction with novels like Humans and short stories like the infamous Nackles.

Like Eisner, Westlake liked to put real and very ordinary people in situations normally reserved for heroes, villains and other stock characters. Maybe that was why characters like Abe Levine got under your skin.

Name: Brian Siano Source: unca20090104.htmI read that and actually yelped in shock. I love Westlake, Stark, and all the other names. And this year, he helped me alleviate a friend's severe depression via copious loanings of the Dortmunder books.

Donald E. Westlake, a prolific, award-winning mystery novelist who pounded out more than 100 books and five screenplays on manual typewriters during his half-century career, died Wednesday night. He was 75.

Mr. Westlake collapsed, apparently from a heart attack, as he headed out to New Years Eve dinner while on vacation in San Tancho, Mexico, said his wife, Abigail Westlake.

Mr. Westlake, considered one of the most successful and versatile mystery writers in the United States, has earned three Edgar Awards, an Academy Award nomination for screenplay writing, and the elite title of Grand Master from the Mystery Writers of America in 1993.

Since his first novel, The Mercenaries, was published by Random House in 1960, Mr. Westlake has written under his own name and several pseudonyms, including Richard Stark, Tucker Coe, Samuel Holt and Edwin West. Despite the diversity of names, one shared feature was that almost all his books were set in New York City, where he was born.

He used many names in part to combat skepticism over his rapid rate of writing books, which at some points reached four a year.

In the beginning, people didnt want to publish more than one book a year by the same author, said Susan Richman, his publicist at Grand Central Publishing, his current publisher. In the later half of his career, Mr. Westlake had narrowed himself to his own name and Richard Stark, author of a dark series about a one-name criminal named Parker.

The full panoply of all his books was a spectacle to behold, his friends said. We were in his library, this beautiful library surrounded by hundreds and hundreds of titles, and I realize that every single book was written by Donald Westlake, English language and foreign language editions, said Laurence Kirschbaum, his agent.

Mr. Westlakes cinematic style of storytelling, along with his carefully crafted plots and crisp dialogue, translated well to the screen. More than 15 of his books were made into movies, some multiple times. In addition, he himself wrote a number of screenplays, including The Grifters, which was nominated for an Academy Award in 1991.

Donald Edwin Westlake was born to Lillian and Albert Westlake on July 12, 1933, in Brooklyn, but raised in Yonkers and Albany. He attended a number of colleges in New York State, but did not graduate from any of them. He married his current wife, Abigail, in 1979, and the couple made their home in Gallatin, N.Y. He was previously married to Nedra Henderson and Sandra Kalb. He is survived by his wife; his four sons by his previous marriage, Sean Westlake, Steven Westlake, Paul Westlake, Tod Westlake; two step-daughters, Adrienne Adams and Katherine Adams; a step-son, Patrick Adams; his sister, Virginia; and four grandchildren.

He was writing all the way till he passed away. His next novel, Get Real, is scheduled to be released in April 2009.

Name: Adam-Troy Castro Source: unca20090104.htmJohn Dortmunder, Andy Kelp, Tiny, May, Murch, and Murch's Mom. I hope that when you get to Heaven you find that perfect score and get to keep the money this time.